Edge Group Chairman: 'We Are Just Warming Up'

DUBAI—Edge Group Chairman Faisal Al-Bannai is a man on a mission to make the company into one of the world’s major defense export players.

Four years since the company was formed and after a wave of strategic investments into and acquisitions of companies on two continents, Edge is gearing up for a slew of export contracts that are helping to propel the Emirati business into the limelight.

“This company is just beginning,” Al-Bannai tells ShowNews at the Dubai Airshow here. “We are just warming up.”

In Edge’s first year of trading in 2019 it logged around $80 million in export orders. Since then, Al-Bannai says proudly that the export sales generated by the group totaled $1.5 billion over the last year, including a significant $1 billion order for corvette naval vessels placed by Angola. 

Al-Bannai says there is more to come, with orders for missiles, loitering munitions and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in the coming weeks and months. In the aerospace sector, Edge has purchased a majority stake in Switzerland’s Anavia rotary-wing UAS company with a plan to grab market share from Austria’s Schiebel, the current market leader.

On the second day of the Dubai Airshow, the company announced it was supplying MANSUP anti-ship missiles to the Brazilian Navy through its acquisition of Brazilian missile manufacturer SIATT, in a deal it values at AED600 million ($163 million).

The company’s investment in Poland’s Flaris, a light jet manufacturer, will lead to the development of an uncrewed system called Sinyar. More advanced versions of the platform are to be developed through a joint venture. “We are adding technologies to these companies … helping them become much faster now from a tech point of view,” Al-Bannai says.

“What we are finding is that small to medium players are asking to talk to us because we are growing and determined, and they would rather become part of this family and grow their product portfolio from here,” he adds.

Back in the UAE, nationally developed products also are progressing. Al-Bannai cites the Reach-S tactical UAS, which is currently undergoing flight trials, footage of which can be seen at Edge’s stand. 

“We will have gone from a concept sketch to production in 36 months, developing an aircraft that is releasing weapons,” Al-Bannai says of the Reach-S. “I am not sure how many of the large players can say the same." He also notes that the company already has secured a domestic order for 100 Reach-S aircraft.

Edge also is flying scale-models of the Jeniah jet-powered uncrewed combat air vehicle, with the aim of flying a full-scale system during 2024.

While Edge’s business units also produce firearms and armored vehicles, and provide training, Edge’s key ambition is to become one of the global players in autonomous systems, electronic warfare and smart weapons over the next 5-10 years. “Edge needs to become a key destination for all of those products,” Al-Bannai emphasizes.